Essay Example: Compliance Problem and Enforcement Action in the Transport Industry

Part 1: Recent Compliance Problem and Enforcement Action

The industry where the compliance problem occurred is the transport industry. Additionally, the company involved was Transport Logistics International (TLI) and it is a corporation that offers the services of transporting nuclear materials to clients situated in the United States and other parts of the world.

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The non-compliant behavior that was performed by TLI was the infringement of the anti-bribery provisions as stipulated by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Moreover, in this case, TLI had been involved in corrupt payments of approximately $1.7 million to offshore bank accounts, which were associated with Russian shell corporations. In this case, the accounts were owned by Vadim Mikerin and at the time, he was a leading Russian official at the JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX) Corporation, a major subsidiary of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation. The laws that were not followed involved the diktat against payment of bribes by TLI to international companies under the FCPA Act and this resulted in the prosecution of some of the corporation's top officials.

The regulatory agency involved in the case was the U.S. District Court of Maryland. Additionally, the judge in charge of the case was Judge Theodore Chuang and the case occurred on March 14, 2018.

The penalties or punishments that resulted in this behavior entailed the prosecution of three officials of the TLI Corporation for their participation in the bribery scheme. Also, cases against TLI as well as Mark Lambert who was the former co-president of the corporation were also opened. Also, TLI fired the officials who had been involved in the crime after it consented to enter into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Maryland's DPA department.

The article featured did not provide details of the steps that the TLI Corporation will take in ensuring that such behavior will not happen again in the future.

Part 2: Student's Opinion about the Recent Compliance Problem and Enforcement Action

In light of TLI's case, I think that the company was served right for their involvement in corruption dealings. Additionally, the penalty that the company was ordered to pay was higher than the total sum the organization had spent in corrupt dealings. I believe that the U.S. District Court of Maryland made the right decision in remitting TLI to pay the high fine. Additionally, this is because the penalty sent a good warning message to all the other corporations in the world that could also be involved in similar corrupt dealings.

Corporate governance in GRC entails the direct management of an organization's activities by the senior executives of the organization. Additionally, in respect to the TLI's case, it is evident that the quality of corporate governance in some of the major corporations in the world is compromised by ethical misconducts of its top officials. Furthermore, from the TLI's prosecution case, it is apparent that corporate corruption is still a real corporate-level issue that is in existence today. Moreover, this is despite the laws and regulations enacted by different governments around the world to suppress it.

As such, risk management against the occurrence of such corporate governance misconducts is imperative in ensuring that corporations are not affected by the repercussions of being prosecuted for their involvement in corrupt dealings. For instance, TLI was fined $2 million for their involvement in corruption with Vadim Mikerin of the TENEX Corporation. In this case, TLI could not afford to pay the penalty and instead, they were forced to take a plea with the DPA on condition that they would assist the law enforcement agencies with the investigation. Based on this occurrence, it is valid to state that corruption can lead to the entire collapse of corporations, especially those unable to pay the associated prosecution fines.

I also believe that the government's interventions towards addressing TLI's case were sufficient. Additionally, this is because it was involved in charging the top corporate executives that were involved in the corruption case. Furthermore, the government's involvement made TLI terminate the employment of all its personnel who were involved in facilitating the crime. Also, TLI as a corporation was forced to pay for the actions of its corrupt officials, which significantly elevated the company's need to improve the level of accountability for its employees' actions.

Additionally, TLI's criminal involvement case had a significant impact on the transportation industry. Additionally, this is because the heavy penalty fined on TLI immensely affected its market performance. Also, as a leading transportation service corporation in the United States and internationally, the financial impact of the fine must have significantly reduced the amount of work that the corporation could take for its clients. Lastly, the outcome of TLI's case affected the consumers of the nuclear products transported by the corporation. In this case, reduced transportation ability by TLI meant that its consumers had to look for an alternative transportation strategy.

Ultimately, the repercussions of the TLI's had a significant impact to the general public. Additionally, this is because the public members realized the impact that corporate corruption could have on an organization. Additionally, the